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May 13, 2014

Filthy Music Review - 'Miasmal: Cursed Redeemer'

Miasmal
- Cursed Redeemer (2014)

Century Media Records

Review by Trevor Proctor

Sweden’s
Miasmal are about to unleash their second album Cursed Redeemer which is due to
be released on May 13th in North America via Century Media Records; the album was
recorded in less than a week by Fredrik Nordström at Studio Fredman (Opeth and
At the Gates) and features eight tracks of rocking death metal across a fast
paced thirty seven minutes.

Hailing from Gothenberg Miasmal are part of a group
of bands who are currently integral parts in the current revival and
rejuvenation of death metal – just as the their predecessors did in the late
eighties/early nineties bands like Miasmal, Morbus Chron and Tribulation are pioneering
creative forces gaining both larger audiences and much bigger surges in
popularity than ever before. It’s been four long years since Miasmal released
their self-titled debut via Dark Descent Records so anticipation and
expectation around the release are significant to say the least.

Whilst recording
took less than a week Cursed Redeemer was written over a six month period
before the band entered Fredman’s studio; a studio familiar to
vocalist/guitarist Pontus as he’s previously recorded there with his other bands
Agrimonia and Martyrdod – crust, d-beat groups, Miasmal’s drummer Bjorn is also
a member of Agrimonia.

Whilst
Morbus Chron and Tribulation released albums last year which were quite
dissimilar to their previous output (both excellent albums worth checking out
if you haven’t already done so) Miasmal opted to stick closer to the sound of
their self-titled debut album yet with Cursed Redeemer they have managed to
achieve a sound that’s fresh, exciting and authentic whilst avoiding the pit of
retro act that many other acts have unfortunately fallen into.

Miasmal
don’t dick about, the album’s title track kicks off and instantly throws the
listener into Miasmal’s balls to the wall, death infused rock n roll sound - there’s
no intro, no gimmicks, no pretention; just up-front, flat out death metal with
Miasmal’s own twist on the sub-genre. It’s easy to spot Pontus’ other bands
influences as there’s plenty of crust punk here and there that add to the
overall sound. At times there are some similarities in sound with Wolverine Blues
era Entombed but I mean this as the highest of compliments; Miasmal’s music may
give an occasional backwards glance to its roots but the sound on Cursed
Redeemer belongs to no one but Miasmal – a thoroughly enjoyable high-octane
brand of punk and crust infused rocking death metal.

From beginning to end this
is a very solid, enjoyable and addictive album. Cursed Redeemer is Miasmal’s
debut album release for Century Media and deserves to garner them a much wider
worldwide audience -whilst some may claim Miasmal don’t bring anything new to
the table I totally disagree and also feel they certainly don’t need to bring
anything new as their sound is original and authentic – Cursed Redeemer
delivers salvo after salvo of crusty, punk-infused rocking death metal that has
its own sound, a very,very solid release from another top Swedish group that we
will hopefully hear a lot more from in the future.